It might seem odd to someone who has not run a marathon to say that mental strength and training is as important as the physical training if you want to be successful on race day. However, a recent French study found that an involuntary drop in performance during repeated bicycling sprints was accompanied by a comparable decline in electrical activity in the muscles. Since electrical activity in the muscles is controlled by the brain, these results showed that the fatigue the cyclists experienced was not caused by acid buildup or any other factor within the muscles themselves. Instead, it was caused by reduced drive from the brain.
So how can we use this information to help us achieve our goals? We are going to use our half marathon experience over the weekend as an example and use Katie as an inspiration as to how we can push past our perceived physical limits. We entered the half marathon with the goal of a half marathon PR (personal record) for Katie. We have followed a training schedule for the past 3 months that was specifically designed to reach this goal. Every run had a purpose and all of the runs we completed pointed toward success in reaching the goal. However, the one physical factor we couldn't train for due to the limitations of our daily schedules, was that we would be running in temperatures approximately 20 degrees higher than our training runs.
The race went well for the first 9 miles. Through the halfway point, Katie was on pace to run 4 minutes faster than her goal time, but as the temperatures climbed, it was hard to take in enough fluids to stay adequately hydrated. The going got really tough at mile 10 when we encountered the steepest hill on the course. At this point, when everything in your mind and body is telling you to quit, you find out what you are made of. Your brain is sending signals to your body telling it to walk, or to just plain quit. But are you really at your limit... or is it mind over matter?
Katie drew on her training and she knew she had the physical strength to run her goal time. So she "talked" herself through the perceived physical limits and managed to still reach her time goal... a personal record. The record was hard earned, and a part of her wishes the race hadn't been so challenging, and yet not only did she reach her goal, but she also gained the mental strength to know that she can hang in when the going gets tough.
Are we saying that you should always push through physical pain? NO! There are times when physical pain is a very real sign that you should stop. We never want you to push through pain that is associated with injury or joint pain. We do want you to learn to recognize when "pain" is simply fatigue or the brain limiting what you can actually achieve.
One of our participants during our Rogue Metabolic week commented that she never thought she could work or push so hard. That was not just a physical accomplishment, but a mental breakthrough. So what does this mean for us in our metabolic training? Remember how we asked you to maintain speed of repetitions (without compromising form and safety)? Our brains are going to "slow down" the electrical impulses to our muscles before they are truly fatigued. We can override that feeling for a period of time until we do reach true fatigue. We are capable of training our brains to help us improve performance and achieve our fitness goals. 
No comments:
Post a Comment